Method of grading pieces of material for variations in color.



. E. E. W|NKLEY METHOD OF GRADING PIECES OF MATERIAL FOR VARIATIONS INCOLOR. APPLICATIQN FILED JAN. l5. l9.!6- RENEWED JULY 10; I9IB.

1,294,741. Patented Feb. 18,1919.

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ERASTUS E. WINKLEY, F LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0 UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY,

A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

METHOD OF GRADING- .PIECES OF FOR VARIATIONS IN COLOR.

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0 Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 15, 1916, Serial No. 72,336. Renewed July 10,1918. Serial No. 244,296.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, 'ERASTUS E. WINK- LEY, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex and State ofMassachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inMethods of Grading Pieces of Material for Variations in Color; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to whichit appertains'to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a method of sorting or grading pieces ofmaterial. As illustrative of one use of the invention it will bedescribed in connection with grading pieces of shoe stock.

- As is well known the color of different sides of tanned leather hidesvaries con- ,siderably even when the different sides are heels whenthese parts which are composed of sole leather, are left unstained inthe finished shoe.

In present day shoe factories soles and top-lifts are sorted for color,if at all, by the eye of the workman with theresult that in thefinishedshoe there is often a marked discrepancy between the color ofthe soles or of the heels of the two shoes of a single pair. i

Theobject' of the present invention is t provide for an accurate gradingof pieces of material, and more particularly soles, top-lifts, or likepieces of shoe stock, for their difierences in color.

In accordance with this object the invention contemplates the use of anapparatus which willaccurately determine the color of any particularpieceto be graded, within a certain range'of shade, and will indicatethe color in such a way that the workman may assemble together allpieces of approximately the same color, or within a predeterminedlimited range of a particular shade of color.

The invention, therefore, comprises a method of accurately grading thevariations in color of pieces of material, more especially soles andtop-lifts for boots and shoes, a plurality of which are ultimately to beused together. i

An understanding of the invention will be assisted by reference to theaccompanying drawings illustrating, partly diagram matically, a roughapparatus which may be used in carrying out the method, in which Figure1 is a diagram illustrating, partly .in vertical section, the apparatus1n quesv placing the piece to be operated on, such as the sole S, overit. Within the box is mounted an electric bulb 12 and a selenium cell14, preferably of the Ruhmer type, in the manner indicated in Fig. 2, sothat a beam of light is directed obliquely upon the surface of thepiece. Each of the last named parts is provided with a parabolicreflector 16. The reflector about the light directs its rays to theopening and the reflector about the selenium cell directs into the cellthe rays of light reflected from the surface of the sole S. Between thelight and the selenium cell is a partition 18 WlllCh prevents stray raysof light from reaching the cell, the cell being affected only by suchrays as are reflected thereto from the surface of the sole. I

The electric light may be in any convenient light circuit, as indicatedby the dynamo D and connected electric wires. The selenium cell may beconnected in circuit with a battery B, and a galvanometer, or othersuitable electric current measuring instrument, indicated at G. Theadjuncts of the battery circuit, such as resistance boxes,

Patented were. is, rare.

relays, etc., it is not deemed necessary to indicate in the drawing, itbeing understood -8, and the bulb 12 being lighted, its light isreflected from the sole and rays gathered into the selenium cell 14. Asthe color of the soles being graded varies from light to dark theresistance set up in the cell will be diminished and increased,resulting in greater or lesser movements of the galvanometer needleacross the scale 20. If the first sole is very dark in color theindicated reading will be, say, somewhere between 1 .and 2 on the scale20, while a lighter sole will give a higher reading. Each solewill beplaced b the workman in the bin marked for the gra e indicated bythegalvanometer.

For any single pair of boots or shoes two soles or lifts of any colorgrade, c. e., from anyone bin, may be used. For a manufacturingorderof-shoes, which specifies that all .pairs must be uniform in coloring,soles and lifts of a single grade will be used in filling the order.

In this specificationthe iword color has.

been used in the sense in which it is commonly used with respect to thegrading of shoe-stock, namely, as indicating not only the color properor hue, but also the tone or shade of the color. Since the selenium cellis more sensitlve to certain colors than to others, and is alsosensitive to gradations in the. intensity or tone of any given color, itwill be apparent that it may be employed to rade pieces of material inaccordance Wit either of these factors if the other factor be constant.In the grading of shoestock the factor of color in a strict sense isusually constant, that is to say, the method will usually be carried outupon a lot of pieces of shoe material of the same'tannage, so that thevariations between the pieces will be rather of tone than of absolutecolor, and in this way the desired result is secured since it issimilarity in the tone of the material used in a pair or in a lot ofshoes which it is most desirable to secure.

Having thus described the invention and the preferred manner ofpractising it, it is definitely stated in its true scope in thefollowing claims. 1

What is claimed as new, is:

1. The method of grading pieces of material which consists in subjectingthe pieces severally to illumination substantially uniform in characterand intensity, measuring the intensity of the light reflected from thepieces, and sorting the pieces according to a scale of such intensities.

2. The method of ading pieces of material which consists in subjectingselenium to the light reflected from the pieces severall when subjectedto illumination substantiaily uniform in character and intensity;- andsorting the pieces according'to a scale based upon the variations in theelectrical resistance of the selenium resulting from the variations inthe intensity of the light so reflected. I ERA-STUS E. WINKLEY.

